mau@nixbur.UUCP (Michael Urban) (12/04/90)
PRESS RELEASE
SIEMENS NIXDORF UNVEILS NEW VERSION OF USER INTERFACE BUILDER
XBUILD Can Be Extended, Customized for Building Motif Applications
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (November 26) -- Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems,
Inc., today announced an upgrade of its XBUILD (tm) tool for building
OSF/Motif (tm) graphical user interfaces, incorporating new features that
let users customize and extend the tool for more productive applications
development.
The company also announced today that it will offer a trial version of
the product, which will allow users to test XBUILD's features by
building limited-size interfaces before they buy.
First introduced at Xhibition in May 1990, XBUILD is an open user
interface development tool (UIDT) for painlessly developing, testing,
and perfecting production-ready graphical user interfaces based on the
OSF/Motif standard. A major advantage of XBUILD-generated interfaces is
that they are fully runtime-independent, requiring no additional runtime
software libraries nor license fees.
Based on an intelligent object library and easy-to-use editor, XBUILD
dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of developing UNIX (tm)
applications that use the OSF/Motif (tm) standard, the company said.
"Motif eliminates the awkward user interface that's been an obstacle to
more widespread adoption of UNIX. XBUILD takes it a step further by
allowing software developers and end-user organizations to more rapidly
develop Motif interfaces," said John Paul, executive vice president of
research and development for Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems Inc.,
"With Release 1.1, we've made XBUILD more powerful and flexible, to
match customers' aggressive plans for Motif applications."
"As more and more organizations commit to Motif as a GUI standard, we
predict that XBUILD will become the standard user interface development
tool for Motif," said Paul.
"XBUILD has cut our programming effort by thirty percent," said Hans W.
Strack-Zimmermann, president of iXOS Software GmbH of Munchen, Germany,
a supplier of Motif-based applications and consulting services to the
commercial market. "In particular, its runtime-independence means that
we aren't physically tied to a single hardware platform nor at the mercy
of special libraries. The new release of XBUILD has a number of
features that will be strategic to our key applications areas of
archiving imaging systems."
Using a graphical "WYSIWYG" editor and the familiar "point-and-click"
method, XBUILD users create interfaces using actual Motif graphical
objects or "widgets." In addition to allowing programmers to rapidly
construct interfaces, this means that the appearance and behavior of the
interface while in design are identical to that of the resulting code.
Programmers can test their work at any point, by invoking a test mode
that lets them create and interact with the interface. XBUILD generates
C (ANSI or K&R) code or the higher-level OSF UIL (User Interface
Language).
With Release 1.1, programmers can extend XBUILD to include user-defined
widgets and resources (attributes), to meet corporate standards or allow
customization of applications. Programmers can also dynamically
incorporate new widgets into the object base, to accommodate
applications requirements or evolving industry standards.
Other customization options include changing object class/resource
values to support internationalized versions of XBUILD; removing objects
from the object library, to provide only a subset of widgets; and
changing production rules and resource definitions for an object class,
to meet specific applications requirements.
For example, an MIS/DP director for a retail bank might want to develop
and internally distribute a version of XBUILD for building forms-based
applications for the Consumer Credit department. To make the tool
simpler for her programmers, she removes from XBUILD widgets that do not
relate to forms, while specifying a special resource that enables the
Motif text widget to accommodate the summary financial text that
customer service representatives will have to enter. She might also add
a widget with the company logo, which can serve as the opening menu for
the applications.
Customization instructions are specified in external files that XBUILD
reads at runtime. XBUILD's intelligent dynamic loading feature
automatically seeks and initiates the appropriate functions, eliminating
the need to build a special version of the tool to accommodate custom
functions or new widgets.
XBUILD Release 1.1 can also import UIL code, allowing it to reuse or
edit portions of existing programs.
"With Release 1.1, we're providing the most powerful, flexible tool
available for developing Motif graphical user interfaces," said Stan
Swiniarski, director of technology marketing for Siemens Nixdorf
Information Systems, Inc. "XBUILD protects programmers from the Motif
toolkit's underlying low-level interface construction details. At the
same time, it offers a lot more control. No other tool, for example,
lets you dynamically incorporate user-defined widgets and objects."
XBUILD is priced at $5,000 for a source code version and $1,500 for each
accompanying internal-use license, which allows a user to run binary
versions of XBUILD generated from the source code. Also available is a
binary license for $1,895. Quantity discounts are available for both
internal-use licenses and binary licenses.
Redistribution licensing arrangements are also available for ISVs and
VARs who want to market or sell XBUILD binary copies or derivative
works.
System requirements for the binary version of XBUILD include UNIX System
V (tm) 3.2 or 4.3 bsd or higher, OSF/Motif, and one of the following
hardware platforms: Sun 3 (tm), SPARCStation (tm), 386 SCO/Open Desktop (tm),
DECStation (tm) 3100, MIPS, or Siemens Nixdorf Targon (tm) 31 and Targon 35
systems. The source code version requires UNIX System V 3.2 or 4.3 bsd
or higher, OSF/Motif (tm), and C++ version 1.2.
For more information about XBUILD or to order a trial version, contact
either Gerard Kiley or Susan Goguen at (617) 864-0066, or send e-mail to
xbuild@nixdorf.com!
Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc., is a major developer and
marketer of business system solutions incorporating micro, mini, and
super minicomputers, specially designed software, peripherals, and
communications and information systems. Based in Burlington, Mass., the
company employs more than 1200 people in 110 sales, service and R&D
offices throughout the U.S.
Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc., is the U.S. subsidiary of the
newly merged Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, based in Germany
with international manufacturing, a sales and service network in 45
countries worldwide, and over 50,000 employees. Siemens Nixdorf is the
largest European computer company and ranks among the world's largest
information technology specialists. Siemens Nixdorf is being hailed as
the new force in information technology with its global strategy as a
top solution provider.
Siemens Nixdorf is part of the Siemens family of companies, which in
1988 had more than $37 billion in combined sales and 365,000 employees
in 122 countries.
The Technology Marketing Group of Siemens Nixdorf adapts, markets and
supports technologies developed by the company to the open systems
market.
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Contact: Michele Nadeem
Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc.
(617) 273-0480, ext. 3388
Janice Brown
Janice Brown and Associates, Inc.
(617) 332-8066
XBUILD is a trademark of Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems, Inc.
OSF, OSF/Motif, and Motif are trademarks of the Open Software Foundation, Inc.
UNIX is a registered trademark and System V a trademark , of AT&T.
SPARCstation is a trademark of SPARC International, Inc., licensed
exclusively to Sun Microsystems.
DECStation is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Open Desktop and SCO are trademarks of The Santa Cruz Operation.
Targon is a registered trademark of Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG.